The present invention relates to an infant care apparatus and, more particularly, to a hood for use with an infant warming apparatus such as an incubator.
There are, of course, many devices or apparatus for the care of an infant and most have, in common, an infant compartment within which the infant is positioned within a controlled atmosphere. Typically the infant compartment has a support surface that is a generally flat, planar surface on which the infant lies and from which lateral sides extend upwardly where a top combines with the upper portion of the sides to from therein an infant compartment. The sides are normally vertical and constructed of a material that is a transparent plastic in order to afford a good view of the infant contained within the infant compartment. Thus, the hood itself may be a separate unit that simply covers the vertical side walls by means of a lower peripheral edge that engages and mates with the upper periphery of the vertical side walls or may be may be a construction that includes the vertical side walls themselves or portions thereof.
As used herein, therefore, the term hood will be used to describe the upper portion of entire structure that forms the infant compartment with the generally vertical side walls included in the structure to form the infant compartment or may only be the top portion of a construction where the side vertical walls are separately formed and the top portion can be moved with respect to those side walls to open and close the infant compartment.
Basically the configuration of the hood is important as it allows the attending personnel good visibility of the infant so that such caregivers can keep a good visual monitor of the infant within the enclosure without having to open the incubator and disrupt the atmosphere surrounding the infant. Obviously, a planar, flat surface is good for visibility similar to a flat pane of glass in a window and thus such flat surface is preferred in incubators. In addition, however, the flat planar surface needs to be disposed at an inward angle so that the nurse can look through the flat surface at about a right angle, that is, the nurse looks directly downwardly and inwardly through the flat, planar surface to see into the infant apparatus. In designing incubators, therefore, there normally is a flat, planar surface located at the height of the ergonomically determined nurse and directed inwardly at an angle such that the nurse can stand alongside the incubator and look directly through the flat, planar surface into the infant compartment. As will be seen, by inwardly, it is mean that the panels slope inwardly toward the interior of the enclosure in the upward direction.
Accordingly, various hood designs have been used, one of which is cylindrical as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,913 of Maluta et al. The Maluta et al incubator has no flat, planar panels and would not be amenable to the use of such panels. In the Lessard et al patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,355 there is a hood configuration that has flat, angled upper panels on opposite sides of the hood but neither of the ends has a angled flat panel that would provide a good view and thus the Lessard et al hood would not afford a good view of an infant positioned within the incubator from the end of the hood. As such, while the Lessard et al construction may afford a good view from the sides of the incubator, it would not enable the caregiver to have a good, undistorted view from either end of the incubator. Thus, a caregiver cannot pass along a line of such incubators aligned in a row and see the infant through the ends of those incubators without trying to see through a vertical and not angled panel.
Finally, there is a hood design in Beld et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,570 that features a curved surface in the very area of the hood that would be viewed through by the caregiver in monitoring the infant and therefore would get a distorted view of that infant. Thus, in Beld et al, the goal was to achieve a dome having rounded comers whereas, in the present invention, it is the intention to provide flat, planar panels for the caregiver to look through the hood at an infant within the apparatus.
As can be seen, there is a difficulty in the present hood configurations. It is important that the view of the infant not be through distorted surfaces but preferably through a flat panel in viewing the infant and that such flat panels be provided for viewing through the sides and at least one of the ends of the infant care apparatus. The visibility through the sides afford a good view of the entire length of the infant to the personnel while the view into one of the ends allows the incubators to be aligned in rows and the personnel can walk down an aisle to be able to look into the ends of the incubators. Also with certain procedures, it is sometimes necessary for multiple viewers to be observing the procedure on the infant and it would be an advantage to have an end panel also planar and angled inwardly so as to afford that viewer a good view from the end of the incubator.
To avoid distortion, it is preferable that the person be able to look through a flat, planar inclined surface on the lateral or longitudinal sides to enable a good, undistorted view of the infant. However, as can be seen while the present incubators may have inclined flat viewing surfaces for viewing through the lateral sides, none have an additional flat, inclined surface for viewing through at least one of the ends of the apparatus.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an incubator having a top surface that has inclined flat, planar surfaces for viewing an infant located within an incubator compartment along the lateral, longitudinal sides as well as at least through at least one of the ends of the incubator.
Accordingly, the present invention relates to a hood for use with an infant care apparatus that provides a cover for an infant compartment to enclose the infant in a controlled environment. The hood has a generally rectangular lower edge that mates with the structure of the infant care apparatus to form that infant compartment. At least three flat, planar transparent panels extend upwardly and inwardly from the lower generally rectangular edge to form a top portion that is generally planar.
Thus, the hood can cover the infant compartment of the infant care apparatus and yet provide enhanced visibility into the infant compartment for the caregiver to be able to see the infant with a minimum of distortion of that view. With the present hood, there are at least three flat, planar surfaces that are angled with respect to a horizontal plane so that the caregiver can look directly through those panels to see the infant. The flat panels are positioned such the height of the average caregiver can generally look directly at the angled panels to see into the infant compartment. In addition, the flat, planar panels are located in at least three sides of the generally rectangular shaped hood so that the caregiver can look through the angled panels on both longitudinal sides of the infant care apparatus but also have a good view through at least one of the ends of that apparatus.
As stated, the hood can be actually part i.e. joined to or integral with the sides of the apparatus and merely be the upper portion of an overall enclosure or may be a separate hood that can be used to cover and uncover the top of an enclosure containing the infant.
In the preferred embodiment, the angle of the longitudinal planar side panels is preferably about 40-50 degrees, and more preferably about 45 degrees with respect to the horizontal plane and the angle causes the transparent panels to project upwardly and inwardly from the lower rectangular edge of the hood to ultimately form the top portion of the hood. The horizontal plane is used as a reference for the various angles of the flat, planar panels since the infant is generally positioned on a flat, planar surface that is horizontally oriented within the infant care apparatus. The front end flat transparent panel may have a different angle, that is, preferably about 50-55 degrees, or more preferably 53 degrees with respect to the vertical plane. In any instance, the angled flat, transparent panels form an acute angle with respect to a horizontal plane to enable the caregiver to see through the transparent panels without distortion.
The top of the hood is also a flat, planar surface and, in the preferred embodiment, the top is angled downwardly in the direction of one of the front end of the apparatus as will be later defined. The preferred top also widens in the same direction, that is, toward the front end panel .
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent during the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings herein.